What does a day in the life of a zoo elephant look like? A typical day for an elephant, e.g. at Zurich Zoo, might look somewhat like this: 07:00 The animal keepers begin their ...
Zoo born elephants
Between 1900 and 2017, 20 elephant births took place in Switzerland: 1963 1.0 Sahib-Friodolin at Circus KNIE (Ceylon/Siam) 1965 0.1 Madura at Circus KNIE (Java/Siam) 1966 0.1 Ota at Zoo Basel (Idunda/Omari) 1984 0.1 Komali ...
Mice and Elephants
Are elephants really afraid of mice? The rumour that elephants are scared of mice is very persistent and there are whole collections of jokes circulating on this topic. However, these jokes are just as ...
Keeping elephants
How are elephants kept? Nowadays, three different kinds of elephant keeping are used in zoos: “Free Contact”, “Protected Contact” and “Offhand Management”. However, in circuses, elephants are being shown in the ring. Working with ...
European Elephant Group
Dear elephant lovers In 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, as well as in 2002, the European Elephant Group published in cooperation with the association ELEFANTEN-SCHUTZ EUROPA e.V. [PROTECTION OF ELEPHANTS EUROPE, registered association] altogether 5 ...
The commands for the elephants
How many commands does a zoo elephant know? In his daily contact with the elephants, an elephant keeper uses about 16 different commands. By means of these commands, he communicates verbally with the elephants. ...
Elephantbulls and bulls managements
Are bulls a big challenge? The male elephants represent a special challenge within the keeping of elephants. As is the case for most mammals, also with the elephants the male animal is stronger and ...
Bottle fed elephantbaby – Upali
Who is Upali? Upali was born after a gestation of 662 days, on November 14, 1994 at 3.15 a.m. After Komali and Panang, Upali was Ceyla’s 3rd birth. 2 Weeks later, Upali withdrew, became ...
The birth of an elephant
Why are elephant births important? Every birth of an elephant, as well as in nature as in zoos, is very important for species conservation because both African and Asian elephants are menaced of extinction. Why ...
Keeping the elephants busy or the Behavioural Enrichment for the zoo elephants
Why do zoo elephants need to be kept occupied? In the wild, animals are active day and night looking for food and water, trying to evade their enemies, defending their territory, looking for a ...